‘Arrow,’ Season 1, Episode 12, ‘Vertigo’: TV Recap

Last week there was a bit of confusion over a tweet by the star of “Arrow,” Stephen Amell. Via twitter, he told fans to be on the lookout for a big reveal during the episode – a reveal that would not happen at the end in some cliffhanger-like situation. Well, we all watched and no one saw anything. I tried to get an interview with Amell to find out what we had all missed, but he is too busy on the show to do interviews right now. He did tell me via a twitter direct message that: “It’ll become clear eventually… You weren’t alone… Didn’t notice anyone catch it… Weird.” Hmmm.

Arrow gets a fun guest star tonight. It is Seth Gabel, who I enjoyed watching on “Nip/Tuck” and “Fringe.” He is also known in Hollywood for being married to Bryce Dallas Howard. He is playing a villain known as The Count, based on the DC comic character Count Vertigo. In the comics, Vertigo was tough to fight because he had the ability to make his opponents feel dizzy and lose balance. If you are not a comic book fan, this probably sounds funny and lame, but not every comic book character can have powers like Superman.

Last week on the show, Thea (the sister of Oliver Queen/Arrow) was arrested after she was caught driving while under the influence of a new designer drug called Vertigo. We still don’t know what is going on with Oliver’s step-father, Walter, who was kidnapped by Malcolm Merlyn in order to keep Oliver’s mother, Moira, from talking about the criminal cabal that Merlyn runs in Starling City. Also, the flashbacks to Oliver’s 5 years stranded on an island revealed that Oliver’s only friend there, Yao Fei, was actually working for the island bad guy, Edward Fryers, all along.

Ok, are you caught up now? Time for the 12th episode of “Arrow”…

We begin with a bad guy running down an alley at night, Arrow is in hot pursuit. Our hero wants to know about the Vertigo drug and this guy is a dealer. When starting down the business end of an arrow, the bad guy reveals that he gets his supply of the drug from someone named The Count.

Oliver’s sister, Thea, is in court because of her possession of Vertigo. Her lawyer says he has reached a plea agreement with the prosecutor. The judge rejects the plea. He says that Thea is the face of Vertigo to the city and he wants to make an example of her. Plea deal rejected, Thea is going to trial.

We flash back to the island, five years ago. Oliver is in a cage, captured by Edward’s men. Xao-Fei is there. Oliver is angry that Xao-Fei betrayed him. He says, “I came back for you!” Xao-Fei just walks away.

Back in the present, Oliver goes to the police to find out about their investigation into Vertigo. He runs into McKenna Hall, an attractive woman who is an old friend of his. She’s now a cop. She tells him that they have known about “The Count” for a while, but don’t know much more than his name.

It is time to meet, The Count! The drug dealer that Arrow cornered earlier is being held by The Count’s men. The Count is mad that the dealer said anything to Arrow. The Count injects pure Vertigo into the dealer’s neck. It causes excruciating pain that will last for a few days and then kill the dealer. The Count gives him a gun with “one bullet left.” The Count says he can either use the bullet to get revenge by killing The Count or end his pain by killing himself. The dealer chooses death over the pain.

Tommy and Laurel are hanging out. Laurel is reading about Thea’s case. Oliver arrives to talk to Laurel. He wants Laurel to get her father, police detective Lance, to see if he can influence the judge and help his sister.

Laurel talks to her father about Thea. He hates the Queen family and blames them for the death of his younger daughter. But, Laurel is very convincing. He agrees to try to help.

Oliver and Digg pay a visit to the local Russian mafia, who are friends with Oliver. Oliver says he wants to get into the “pharmaceutical business” and wants some Vertigo. The Russian agrees to contact The Count on Oliver’s behalf… but only if Oliver kills a mafia henchman who messed up, as a way of proving Oliver’s ruthlessness. Digg seems concerned, but Oliver strangles the man without any hesitation. The Russians will set up the meeting.

Time to go back to the island. Xao-Fei takes Oliver out of his cage and leads Oliver over to a place where all the bad guys are in a circle, watching the masked bad guy, Deathstroke, fight someone. It is not much of a match. Deathstroke kills the man. Edward, the leader of the island bad guys asks if anyone else wants to fight and Xao-Fei pushes Oliver forward. Edward wants Xao-Fei to prove himself by taking on Oliver.

In the present, Oliver and Digg are walking away with the dead Russian henchman over Oliver’s shoulder. Digg is stunned that Olvier killed the man. Oliver dumps the man in the trunk of their car and touches the man under on the neck. The man suddenly comes back to life. “Whoa! You gonna teach me that trick one day?” asks Digg. Oliver knocks the henchman out and closes the trunk. “No,” he says to Digg with a smile.

Back at the Queen family mansion, Laurel tells Thea that Det. Lance got the judge to back off. The judge has agreed to give Thea 500 hours of community service. Thea also must submit to the supervision of a court-appointed guardian. Laurel is to be the guardian and Thea rejects that. Thea says she wants to go to jail because she wants to punish her mother for being a liar and cheating on her father. Oliver tells Thea that their father was actually the cheat.

Time for Oliver’s meeting with The Count. Everything is going fine until the police show up. Oliver chases after The Count, who injects him with 2 vials of Vertigo and gets away. Digg grabs Oliver, who is hallucinating badly, and takes him away.

On the island in the past, Xao-Fei is kicking Oliver’s butt. He gets Oliver in a headlock, similar to the one Oliver used to pretend to kill the Russian henchman.

Digg uses some herbal medicine to help Oliver come down from his Vertigo high. At the Queen mansion, Det. Lance and Det. Hall arrive to question Oliver. They say he was seen at the attempted drug deal last night. He tells them he was there trying to get info that could help them to catch The Count. The police leave and it gives Thea a chance to apologies to her mother for being so angry. Thea will take the deal and do community service at Laurel’s law firm. As Oliver walks away, he gets another Vertigo spell and passes out.

Oliver has another island flashback. Edward watches as Xao-Fei takes Oliver’s lifeless body and throws it into a nearby river.

Oliver gets the beautiful Felicity Smoak to do an analysis on the Vertigo left over from The Count’s attack. Water analysis tells them where the Vertigo is being produced. Oliver, who is still suffering from dizzy spells, is going to check it out. Digg says that is a bad idea. The dizzy spells mean Arrow cannot use his bow. Oliver is going to go anyway.

We see Arrow using hand-to-hand combat to take out several of The Count’s henchmen. The police are also on the scene. Arrow grabs The Count and injects him with 2 vials full of Vertigo. Det. Lance and the police burst in and stop Arrow from killing The Count, but Arrow escapes.

At a nearby hospital, The Count is strapped down to a gurney. A doctor tells Det. Lance that she has never seen someone OD on this much Vertigo. She doesn’t know what it will do to him. We see The Count being taken away in convulsions.

We get one more flashback to the island. Oliver wakes up in the water. He is, of course, not dead. He discovers that Xao-Fei gave him a map to a place that will be safe from Edward’s bad guys. The map says, “survive” in Chinese. Xao-Fei is still a good guy!

Felicity Smoak goes to visit Oliver. She says she trusts him and shows him something she got from Walter. It is a book of names, identical to the one Oliver has that lists all the bad guys in Merlyn’s cabal. She tells Oliver that Walter got it from Oliver’s mother.

And with that, the episode is over!

I thought this was a pretty decent episode. I am sure they are setting up The Count to gain the abilities of Count Vertigo in the comics. I still want to see more of the Arrow versus the Dark Archer/Merlyn, but that will have to wait for a little while longer. In the meantime, it is clear that Oliver is going to start investigating his mother’s ties to Merlyn’s group.

And now it is your turn to talk about the episode. Leave your thoughts in the comment section and we can chat about it. The more comments, the merrier! I’ll see you there!

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